May 29, 2012

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, is likely to make a comeback when the country holds elections in July. The PRI had dominated the country’s politics for more than 70 years until 2000. In a recent op-ed, John Ackerman wrote that their re-election would have “disastrous consequences for North America.” He continues:

The PRI has not cleaned up its act or modernized over the last 12 years. To the contrary, it has deepened its networks of corruption and illegality in the territories it still controls. The ten states where the PRI has never lost power are among the most violent, underdeveloped and corrupt in the country. In these states, democratic transition and accountability are exotic concepts and the local governors rule like despotic feudal lords.

Worldview talks with Ackerman, who is also a law professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and editor-in-chief of the Mexican Law Review.